Automatic Ply Partitioning for Laminar Composite Process Planning

Abstract The design of large‐scale laminar composites made from layers of fabric must take into consideration the dimensions of the available spooled fabrics. This involves carefully segmenting the layers to optimise material usage and performance. This work introduces an automated partitioning strategy, specifically targeting large‐scale laminar composite manufacturing. The proposed method inserts fibre‐aligned seams sequentially until each resulting sub‐layer can be manufactured from available materials, while simultaneously enforcing constraints to avoid quality issues induced by the stacking of seams across multiple layers. Leveraging the developable nature of individual layers, the partitioning problem is cast as a sequence of one‐dimensional piecewise linear optimisation problems, thus allowing for efficient local optimisation via linear programming. We experimentally demonstrate that coupling the local search with a greedy global search produces the same results as an exhaustive search. The resulting automated method provides an efficient and robust alternative to the existing trial‐and‐error approach and can be readily integrated into state‐of‐the‐art composite design workflows. In addition, this formulation enables the inclusion of common constraints regarding laminate thickness tolerance, sub‐layer geometry, stay‐out zones, material wastage and so forth. The efficacy of the proposed method is demonstrated through its application to the surface of an aeroplane wing and to the body panels of an armoured vehicle, each subject to various performance‐ and manufacturing‐related geometric constraints.